I must be .... if I am to be judged by the verse in Pro 18:13
"He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him."
Curious ?? OK.. .. .I'll confess.
I was in the produce department of our grocery store yesterday late afternoon. I looked up from examining the apples to see a father, a few feet away, peeling an orange. His little son was waiting patiently watching the peel come off.
The father seemed totally unconcerned with anyone watching and though I did try to catch his eyes to let him know I WAS watching.. he didn't so much as look up.
I did try to reason out if there was some way perhaps that he could take the orange and still pay for it. Like a cookie taken out of a package in your buggy to give to a restless child will still be paid for . But I could not justify him taking the orange.
He handed the peeled orange to his son and said... "There you go .. now come , lets go!" The father and son moved away to another section and my eyes followed them wondering what kind of values he was teaching his son !!
I glanced back to the spot where he had been standing peeling the orange and realized to my chagrin ... that there had been a sign behind his back saying .. "Free... please try one!"
I was suddenly very glad that he had not seen the look at my face revealing my accusation of him being a thief !!
It was a very good reminder to me to realize how quickly we judge what we do not know. How often we judge without knowing what is behind someone's back. We judge on the surface and don't take the time to wait until we know the whole story!
I think just turning a blind eye or saying "It's none of my business!" is not always the best answer either. There is a world full of hurting, lonely people who need someone in their life to care enough to find out the whole story and then lend a helping hand, an encouraging word, a warm smile, a listening ear, or at times even caring enough to warn them of danger!
May we be those kind of people -- loving our neighbour enough to 'listen' before we judge and be ready to freely give to those around us what God has so freely given to us.
9 comments:
Great post! I love taking personal experiences to witness to others. This could have been me doing the same thing too. I will take your wise words into my heart!
Ouch......I've been there and done that.....I would like to blame it on being a firstborn, you know, policing and overseeing tendencies......but it is "folly"....sin, plain and simple. I hope that more and more I will reflect the love and grace of Jesus instead of being judgmental!
Oh such a good reminder Julie that we don't always know the whole story and we musn't judge what we do not know. .
Oh I want to be gracious. .
Things are not always as they seem..how true Julie and I am reminded to watch that I don't judge.
Oh my....these are the lessons I seem to have to learn on a daily basis. Judgement come 'easy' to me although I certainly am the first to comment on how we should NOT judge one another. Grin...thanks for the post.
So true! I was thinking the other day about the beam in my eye when i see a sliver in others. It is easy to judge on ones own perspective. I'm just glad it won't be me who will sit in the ultimate judgment seat.
Wow Julie! How quickly we can judge hey? without hearing the whole story. I love the orange my Father has so freely given me, now I hope I too can look at others with the same grace and see that an orange is just an orange.
So simple, so true. I would of been just like you....wondering and watching. I could kick myself sometimes, but it's a good reminder about judging.
Great lesson in here for me. I always have to remind myself that there are two sides to each story...and sometimes I need to be quiet, so I can hear the other side.
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